Why Google is helping homeowners buy heat pumps

If you live in a certain part of the Bay Area, Google might help you buy a new heat pump—and could offer you as much as $10,000 to do it. In an innovative new proof-of-concept program, the tech giant is partnering with the utility company PG&E and nonprofit Rewiring America to find a new way to unlock more grid capacity. The first product rolling out in the program is a Carrier heat pump with a battery inside, meaning that it can charge when there’s extra solar power on the grid and then use that energy later when the grid is under strain—for example, on a hot summer day when the heat pump is being used for AC. Heat pumps double as efficient heaters and efficient air conditioners. They’re quickly growing in popularity as sales continue to outpace gas furnaces. But by speeding up adoption, Google and its partners can bring bigger benefits to the grid. [Photo: Carrier] Rewiring America proposed the basic idea a year ago: Hyperscalers that want to quickly add more capacity to the grid don’t always have to build new power plants. They can also support virtual power plants—networks of solar panels, batteries, and smart appliances that can be coordinated to act like a power plant—by hel…